Tag Archives: new year

Jan4

Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition

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Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Monday Update of 2016! On New Year’s Eve my darling boyfriend, Kyle, took me out on the most wonderful date night ever. We enjoyed dinner at Gervasi Vineyard, where he works as the assistant manager. In our over four months of dating, I had never eaten there before – asides from food heated up in the microwave, which so doesn’t count! When Kyle told me he had made New Year’s Eve reservations for us I was beyond excited! Take a look at us being a cute couple and then let’s discuss:

kyle!

^^^ I love us!!!

Gervasi Vineyard is one of the most gorgeous eateries in the Akron/Canton, Ohio area. There are three restaurants on the property, Tuscan style villas to stay in, an apple orchard, a beautiful lake, and of course – their vineyard! Kyle has been working there for close to five years and is amazing at his job. I kept telling myself it was only a matter of time until we had a special dinner there, so as I mentioned before, I was so thrilled when he told me about our reservations!

The entire night was so fun and even just getting ready to go to our 6:15 reservation was a treat. I got to help pick out Kyle’s outfit for the evening and it was so cool! Haha, I always love exploring a new wardrobe! We got dressed to the nines and made our way to the restaurant, which he lives very close to. We were the perfect amount of fashionably early for our table and got seated right away so we could begin our meal.

One thing (of many) that I love about Kyle, is that no matter what restaurant we go to, he always plans the dishes that I can eat ahead of time by researching their menu because I’m a strict vegetarian. Since we were on his home territory, however, he spent the whole car ride there describing all of the different things that I could order. Believe me, by the time that we were seated I was drooling like a dog in front of a tub of peanut butter. Classy! 😉

Thanks to Kyle’s expert descriptions of all of my options, I didn’t even have to look at the menu to know what I wanted. For our first course, I chose their butternut squash soup and Kyle got the apple salad. We also ordered a bottle of their sparkling white wine to enjoy with our meal. Butternut squash is my all time favorite kind of soup and it was seriously the best bowl I’ve ever had. It was so creamy and perfectly seasoned and it was so worth the four month wait to try it out!

For our entrees, Kyle ordered the lobster gnocchi and I opted for their linguini with an aglio e olio sauce topped with fresh spinach and arugula. While we waited for the main course we were serenaded by the saxophone player who was performing in the restaurant and it was all so very romantic! Our entrees came very quickly and they were to die for – just like the entire meal!

We finished the main course in record timing and then ordered a small dish of their bread pudding for dessert. We could barely finish half of the serving before tapping out but it was delicious! It had a caramel sauce and rum ice cream to top if off and it’s safe to say that I was in carbohydrate heaven! Once we completed the three course meal, I felt like I was going to explode from my belly full of food. I also was wearing a skirt that wasn’t very forgiving so I’m sure the whole restaurant got a nice view of my big ol’ gut! 😉

To finish our night, Kyle and I went to Giant Eagle after we decided that we could move again and purchased a bottle of champagne to toast with. It was around eight thirty when we got home and after a glass or two of champagne and a few episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, I was beyond ready for bed. I ended up falling asleep at nine thirty, well before the commemoration of the new year at midnight!

By the time I woke up the next morning, I felt like such a goon for falling asleep so early and missing what would have been our first new year’s kiss together. Lucky for me, I have a boyfriend who’s always coming up with sweet surprises for his girl! Kyle showed me a poorly lit but super cute picture that he took of him giving my sleeping self a kiss on the forehead at midnight for proof that I still got my new year’s kiss. How lucky am I? Very. ❤

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: New Year’s Eve Edition! My evening was straight out of a fairy tale and I’ll never forget it. I hope all of you had just as great of a time celebrating! How did everyone ring in the new year? Is there a place similar to Gervasi Vineyard in your neck of the woods? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love and happy 2016. -Sarah

Jan1

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

Helloooo everyone and Happy New Year!!! I’m actually prewriting this, so technically I’m still in 2015! 😉 I’m not really one to post some type of sappy “new year, new me” article so this will just be a brief post to wish all of you an amazing start to 2016. I hope that you succeed at whatever goals or resolutions you made for yourself. I hope that 2016 brings you happiness, laughter, and good health. And I hope all of you have a wonderful time ringing in the new year with your friends and family! TURN UP!!!!

me1

I get to celebrate the new year with my darling beau, Kyle! He made dinner reservations to Gervasi Vineyards, the restaurant that he works at. I’m pretty stoked because even though we’ve been dating for a while, I still haven’t ate there! This will be my first New Year’s Eve where I have a boyfriend to kiss at midnight rather than a bottle of booze! Score!!

Dec24

New Year, New Look

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New Year, New Look

Hello everyone and happy Thursday! I’ve been itching to do something fun to my hair (no, not dye it!) and I think I found the perfect style to do that with. Take a look:

cornrow

^^^ Isn’t that gorgeous?!

The thing about my hair, is that it’s incredibly thick. This is absolute torture for me because I like my hair to be really sleek. My beloved hair stylist, Anna, and I have played around with different methods to get rid of the bulk of my hair during each cut but it always seems to grow back with a vengeance. After taking that situation for what it is, I started playing around with styles that will “remove” the thickness from my hair and give me something really sharp and edgy.

I knew that I absolutely did NOT want to do anything like shaving the sides, so then I decided that cornrows or braids would be a good way to go. To have a somewhat permanent twist on both sides of my head would eliminate the problem of what Anna and I call the “bubble”. The bubble effect happens what my hair starts poofing from the thickness and NOTHING makes it better!

What really drew me to the style that I found, though, was the fauxhawk. I’ve wanted my hair like that for ages but I always thought that it wasn’t long enough. Despite the appearance of a short haired cut, my hair still reaches my collarbones, aside from the back of my hair which is cropped nice and tight. The back of my hair has always been a problem for me, as well, because once it starts growing in, it looks like a straight up mullet – and not in the Uncle Jesse on Full House cute way. This style should help ease that unfortunate issue as well.

Everything about this New Look for the New Year sounds like the answer to my hair related prayers and I’m ready for something fresh and new. I’ve really liked the way that I’ve had my hair, but it’s been basically the same all year and I really want an edgy change. And can you imagine how dope this style will look with my bright red hair? Dayum!

I would never do such a drastic change without the 100% approval and professional opinions of my stylist, so I posted the picture I posted above on her wall on Facebook. Anna was in love right away so the new style is a go! Once everything slows down a little after Christmas, I’ll hit up the salon to get it done. I’d like to have it done before New Years though so I can have my new hair when Kyle takes me on our New Year’s Eve date!

I’m ready to ring in the New Year with a New Look and I’m so excited!! What are your plans for the new year? Who’s going to treat themselves to a new look for 2016? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Dec30

Lil Red’s New Years Resolutions

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Lil Red’s New Years Resolutions

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! It’s almost the start of 2015, therefore I feel obligated to jump on the bandwagon and make a New Year’s resolution post. I’m not going to try to do things in the new year that I know I’m not going to follow through with, such as working out or not eating at Taco Bell every week. These resolutions are going to be more mental, so I can work on myself for a change. Before I get started, here’s some New Years tune-age for your enjoyment! 😉

^^^^^ I had to, guys. I just HAD TO!

ANYWHO, here’s my New Years resolutions for 2015:

Stop being so hard on myself: I’ve always been my toughest critic and this needs to stop. I’ve been especially hard on myself since I quit my stupid job, but really I should be proud of myself. I was getting sexually harassed there to no end and I finally said enough is enough…that shouldn’t be something that I’m shaming myself with. I’ve been so worried about money since I quit a little less than two weeks ago, but I need to keep reminding myself of how lucky I am. I’m still living at home and I’m pretty sure that my parents don’t plan on throwing me out on the street….yet 😉 I need to embrace everything about myself, including some of the things that I’m not so thrilled with. Once you acknowledge your shortcomings, you can change them.

Stop comparing myself to other people: This kind of goes hand in hand with beating myself up constantly in my mind. For example, when I was at a get together about a week ago with some people who I absolutely despised from high school, I felt like such a failure. I felt like a loser for not having a job or for not being at a classic university setting for college. Instead of comparing my situation to the other people in the room, I should have just confidently told them all that I was rocking life when asked what I’ve been up to instead of muttering that I’m at a community college. (Which there is NOTHING wrong with! TRI-C REPRESENT!!!!!!!) When I start getting into the comparing and contrasting game in my head, I need to start giving myself a friendly reminder of where I was at a few years ago. A few years ago I was suicidal, depressed, a bulimic, and a cutter….I was in absolutely no state to attend college. Instead of comparing myself to people who probably didn’t have issues similar to mine, I need to be grateful that I’m finally in a place to start thinking about my future instead of dreading it. I need to give myself more credit, because I’ve come a very long way.

Strive for no instances of self harm: In 2014 I can count the amount of times I’ve cut or made myself throw up on five fingers. For this new year I want to strive for ZERO instances of self harm. One of my problems is that I genuinely hate asking for help, but when it comes to my personal well being I need to start doing so. When I feel the urge to cut or the god awful rhyme “urge to purge” I need to call up the friends who have been telling me to call them when I feel that way for years. I need to start writing in my journal again, which always calmed me down when I got the sensation of needing to self harm before. I also think it would be a wise decision to possibly find a therapist that I could start going to a few times a month so when I need a good venting session, I have a safe and confidential environment to do so.

Be my own best friend: Would a best friend beat yourself up verbally enough to make you want to cry? Would a best friend constantly compare you to people who are living their life differently than yours? Would a best friend be okay with you cutting yourself or making yourself vomit? The answer is a big fat NO to all of these questions. Therefore, I need to become BFF’s with Sarah. I need to treat myself like my best friends treat me, with respect, kindness, and a whole lot of love. And if being my own BFF means taking myself out for a beautiful dining experience at the local Taco Bell, THEN SO BE IT……oh wait….I already do that. -____- Maybe treating myself to a manicure every so often is a better idea! 😉

new year

So there you have it, Lil Red’s New Years resolutions! I hope all of you have an amazing time celebrating on New Year’s Eve and the best of luck sticking to your resolutions in 2015. It’s been a pleasure writing on lifewithlilred these past few months in 2014 and I am so thrilled to come back even stronger in the new year! What are your New Years resolutions? What was one resolution you made that you didn’t stick to? Leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love -Sarah

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